


A New Side

by May1974



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Amity Park (Danny Phantom), Angst, Character Development, Coming Out, Dates, Drama, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Ghost Cores (Danny Phantom), Ghost Hunters, Ghost King Danny Fenton, Ghost Zone (Danny Phantom), Identity Reveal, Idiots in Love, Kind of AU, M/M, No Plot/Plotless, No Sex, Not Beta Read, Not Phantom Planet Compliant (Danny Phantom), Slow Burn, danny phantom - Freeform, danny phantom headcanon, not really - Freeform, personal headcanon, redemption arc, slightly AU, swagger bishie, teddy ghost, world building
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-28
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:14:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24430405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/May1974/pseuds/May1974
Summary: It's been over a year since Danny was in the accident, and he's learnt the ropes well enough. As Phantom, resident hero of Amity Park, he knows his duties from his opinions. Even if that means playing nice with some not-so-nice fans. Only thing is, sometimes he can't help but be an idiot. And sometimes, he can be a real idiot.*Lots of fluff*Not beta-read*My first Danny Phantom Fanfic
Relationships: Dash Baxter & Danny Fenton, Dash Baxter/Danny Fenton, Kwan/Star (Danny Phantom)
Comments: 45
Kudos: 173





	1. Phantom Fans

**Author's Note:**

> If you notice any problems, comment and I'll try to fix them! I'm just a fangirl for cute and fluffy Dash and Danny, so I'm writing this mostly for self-indulgence. Hope you enjoy!

■●■●■●■

 **Chapter 1 | Phantom Fans  
** _(July 2, 2005)_

Danny hadn’t exactly planned on spending the afternoon with his arch nemesis, admiring his teddy bear collection and creepy amount of Danny Phantom merchandise – and yet, there he was.

It was an accident. As soon as he had caught the ghost – some nameless soul that just wanted to wreak havoc for fun – he was prepared to shoot back to his family’s lab to release it back into the Ghost Zone. Even if the ghost had been trying to harm his haunt, Danny knew first-hand how awful it was to be trapped in the Fenton Thermos, especially for long periods of time. He felt less like a hero and more like a masochist if he actively kept ghosts in the thermos for more than a few hours.

And he was about to leave, too, until he flinched at the loud voice from behind him.

“Phantom!”

Dash Baxter.

As much as he wanted to turn around and bury the bully six feet under, he knew that as Phantom he had to keep up appearances and at least be cordial with his fans. After all, as much as he hated to think it, Dash had done nothing but worship Phantom from day one. It would be wrong to take out Danny Fenton’s anger through Danny Phantom.

Didn’t mean he had to like being nice, though.

“Dash …” He turned and tried to sound upbeat.

Honestly, he was already tired from the rough few days he had been having. He didn’t have to face-off against any particularly strong ghosts but had been pummeled by several smaller ghosts. Constantly. He counted himself lucky, though, because at least he had been able to sneak five hours of sleep every night. That didn’t usually happen.

Dash looked absolutely starstruck. Danny didn’t realize his mistake until his bully was a blubbering mess in front of him, eyes big. “You … you know my name? Oh my god, Danny Phantom knows my name!”

Danny hit himself. Literally.

Dash didn’t seem to notice.

“Well, I mean, I make a point to know everyone in town,” he said. And it was true. As much as he denied it, his ghostly obsession with protecting his haunt had forced him to sit his ass down and learn literally everyone’s name in town. Even if not by name, he knew everyone by face. Danny tried to find a nice way to back out of the conversation. “You know, protecting the town and all, but –”

Dash’s face fell for a moment, and Danny thought he had offended him somehow and was ready for a bad reaction of some sort. He stopped. But then Dash’s eyes lit up with every more excitement. “That’s so cool! So, you know everyone? Me? My friends? The mayor –”

“ _Yes_ , the mayor.” He didn’t mean for it to come out so harshly.

Of course, he knew the mayor.

He wished he didn’t.

Still, Dash didn’t seem put-off by Danny’s lack of enthusiasm. “Oh my god – I can’t believe I’m talking to _the_ Danny Phantom! Shit, man – can you sign my jacket?”

Danny groaned. Again, Dash didn’t seem to notice.

He took off his jacket and held it up high to Danny, who was floating several feet in the air, ready to take off. Seeing his bully so vulnerable and awestruck, Danny had half the mind to play a mean prank on him. Or just leave him for his friends to laugh at. He could probably just insult Dash and watch him cry, and the reaction would be enough revenge for him. But despite all these thoughts going on in his head, something in him reacted negatively. He couldn’t do it. He wasn’t like that, and he didn’t want to be. It would make him no better than Dash, especially if he took advantage of his Phantom persona.

He sighed and floated to the ground, exchanging his ghostly tail for a pair of legs. Even at that, Dash’s eyes bugged, but Danny decided not to hassle him about it. Maybe if he played it cool, the awe would wear off and his biggest fan would fade away.

If he was honest, it was kind of uncomfortable to be worshipped by his bully.

Not that said bully knew it was him, but still.

Once he was standing in front of Dash, he realized he didn’t have a marker with him. From the amazed and blank stare Dash was giving him, he figured the jock hadn’t realized that either. Yet. To avoid embarrassment, he quickly just formed ectoplasm in his hands and shaped it much like a pencil. It wasn’t what he used to battle ghosts; it was more subdued, but still glowed green.

He quickly signed the jacket with the neon marker, taking care to write ‘PHANTOM’ and not ‘FENTON’ at the end. _That_ would be embarrassing and hard to explain.

Dash pulled his jacket back and stared at the signature like it was a million dollars and a rainbow-shitting unicorn all wrapped up in bacon and footballs. The signature glowed green, and Danny wasn’t sure about how permanent it would be – depending on if the ectoplasm would leave a stain or be washed out or wiped off – but again, Dash was oblivious. He made a sound halfway between a squeal and a grunt, clearly excited.

“Oh my god, I just had Danny Phantom sign my jacket –”

“Just Danny is fine –”

Danny slapped his hand over his own mouth even before he realized his mistake.

Dash continued.

“Oh my god, I just had Danny sign my jacket, and we’re on a first-name basis –”

He had said that because he was getting annoyed with being called ‘Danny Phantom’ constantly by Dash. He was the only one who hadn’t seemed to get the memo. The rest of the town called him Phantom, or Ghost Boy, or some other ghost-related or insulting name. But it had the opposite effect that he wanted. Dash only became more animated.

Luckily, he didn’t look suspicious at all. Thank the gods for jocks and their meatball brains.

“And I’m hanging out with Danny Phantom!”

Dash still looked as awestruck as the first time he saw Phantom.

Danny groaned and pulled away from Dash, floating up in the air. He felt it was only safe to put a good few feet between him and the town’s resident bully, even if he didn’t think Dash would pull that shit on a ghost. “Look, I really have to go, but maybe I can entertain you next time.”

Again, Dash fell silent, and Danny seriously wondered if Dash thought he was a god.

“Next time?”

He hadn’t meant anything by it. He just said it because he was used to those kinds of excuses and banter between his teachers and the ghosts he fought. But it looked like Dash was really taking it to heart.

Shit.

“Well, I mean –”

“Totally! We can meet here again, like, tomorrow? I can watch you battle a bunch of ghosts, and knock them on their asses –”

With a blatant goodbye, Danny flew out of there as fast as he could. Extremely uncomfortable, with some semblance of feeling like he was leading Dash on, he didn’t know what he had just gotten himself into. Him and Dash? That was ridiculous. Even as Phantom, Danny wanted nothing to do with the guy who spent his entire freshmen year shoving him into lockers and humiliating him in front of the entire school. He could only hope that Dash would pick a new target when the started tenth grade. Otherwise, he was going to spend the rest of his summer focusing on ghost-hunting and stargazing, and hopefully avoiding Dash Baxter and his weird obsession with Danny Phantom.

Not very discreetly, he could here the jock yell a block over from the park. He whooped and hollered, sounding like an overall idiot. But excited. “I’m friends with Danny Phantom!”

■●■●■●■

Danny met up with his friends at his house, sneaking into his room by phasing through the walls. He had long ago ditched trying to climb out the window, when he could easily use his ghost powers. He assumed his parents thought he was home the whole time – which was a perk of the trio being so close and his parents so oblivious – and he quickly thanked them for covering his ass. Sam rolled her eyes and shook her magazine in his direction. It was one of those weird botanist papers.

She quirked a brow. “Hey, you owe me.”

Tucker looked up from his phone. “What about me?”

“You’re the reason he owes me,” she said flippantly. “Every time Danny has to go off and save the town, I’m stuck with you and your weird obsession with your PDA and meat.”

Tucker looked offended. “Her name is Karen.”

“Really, you’re not even going to take a jab at the meat thing?” Danny wasn’t impressed.

He and Tucker had been best friends since they were kids, and Tucker had always had an affinity for technology. Ever since Danny was turned half-ghost, Tucker had gone through several PDAs because they always got destroyed in the ghost fights helping Danny. But this time around, Tucker was determined to stay attached at the hip with his new favourite PDA, which he had affectionately called Karen. It was weird, to say the least, but not the weirdest thing Danny had ever witnessed. So, he didn’t really bother with it.

Sam turned to him, surprised. “Danny, I thought you didn’t like to touch that subject, being the tie-breaker and all?”

Tucker looked up from his phone when Sam not-so-discreetly elbowed him in the ribs to get his attention. He shrugged and frowned at them. “Not going to pretend to notice something different with you, but sure, whatever Sam said.”

Danny groaned and flopped onto his bed.

“It’s nothing. Just annoying fans and an annoying Dash.”

“Really, _him_ again?” Tucker wheezed when Sam elbowed him again. Smartly, he moved further away from her on Danny’s carpet. “Like, I thought he was done drooling over Phantom.”

“Kind of ironic, though,” Sam said, grinning.

“Don’t even mention it.” Just then, an icy blue wisp came from Danny’s mouth. He groaned more audibly than the last time. With the least enthusiasm possible, he said, “going ghost.”

He didn't actually need to say it, but he felt like he needed the extra motivation. The blinding white halos appeared, and Danny turned into Phantom. Even if it was the summer now, he was still tired of the constant ghost fights. Sam and Tucker laughed and jumped to their feet, already reaching for their Fenton ghost-hunting weapons.

“Cheer up,” Sam said. “At least your birthday is coming up.”

He rolled his eyes. “If I even get a day off.”

■●■●■●■


	2. A New Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny has no intentions of making nice with Dash. But then he forgets who he is and who is talking to.

■●■●■●■

**Chapter 2 | A New Friend**   
_(July 3, 2005)_

To be honest, Danny had completely forgotten about what he told Dash the day prior. After dealing with the Box Ghost five times – FIVE TIMES – in one night, he kind of had other things on his mind. School was out, but he had almost failed his courses, and so he was part of a volunteer group to earn extra credit. He didn’t see why a ninth grader needed extra credit, but Mr. Lancer had been insistent. And if there was one teacher Danny didn’t want to push, it was Mr. Lancer.

Sure, the man probably hated him. He favoured the jocks a lot despite being an English teacher, and he once tried to fight off the Box Ghost with a newspaper. But he was the only teacher that seemed remotely interested in Danny and actually put time in with him.

So, it was a weird hate relationship between student and teacher.

He had just finished picking up garbage through Amity Park and was ready to text Sam and Tucker to get their asses over to him – because seriously, they had promised to suffer with him – when he ran into someone. Quite literally. He hit them smack-dab in the chest and stumbled back, only managing to keep his balance by floating.

He looked up and saw a demon looming.

“Dash …” He didn’t have the effort to sound nice.

“Looks like a little Fenturd is here today.” Dash laughed at the worn-out nickname but didn’t make a move to shove him to the ground, which Danny counted as a positive. He must have been in a good mood today. Or he noticed the adult supervisors over by the pavilion. Either way, that hadn’t stopped him before, so Danny didn’t want to push his luck. “Are you here because you’re jealous?”

Danny backed up, confused. “Jealous? Of what?”

“I’ve got a date with Danny Phantom tonight.”

Danny choked. “What?”

“You heard me – I’m hanging out with our town’s superhero tonight. He personally invited me. Bet you’ve never even spoken to him, have you?” Danny wanted to roll his eyes at that. He thought Dash had meant something completely different by ‘date.’ And wouldn’t that interpretation have been awkward to get out of.

Their earlier conversation came back to him, and he cringed. He didn’t think that Dash had taken it seriously. Dash was crazy if he thought Danny _Phantom_ would visit him, especially after what he did to Danny _Fenton_. He also would never, in a million years, after hell froze over, ever want to –

■●■●■●■

Okay, so, sue him. He couldn’t help himself.

There he sat floating in the air, aimlessly going around in circles as he counted the stars and traced the constellations. After some poking and prodding, and then getting a beating from Dash, Danny learned what Dash thought was going to happen. He thought his favourite resident superhero wanted to hang out with him like some sort of friend – which was hilarious enough as was.

So, even though he knew he wanted nothing to do with Dash Baxter, he still couldn’t bring himself to disappoint the bully. He didn’t know why.

Dash had never done anything for him.

In fact, numerous times, he had actually gotten in the way when ‘helping’ his favourite hero in a ghost fight. Not to mention that he regularly gave Danny a beat-down during school. And he bullied everyone who wasn’t on the A-list at Casper High. So, like, Dash really had nothing going for him. He deserved to be served an ectoplasm ray to the face for all Danny wanted to care.

But his ghostly obsession – protection – omitted him from doing that. He couldn’t exactly go against his ghostly core and obsession; he knew how well that ended. And so, there he was, playing the caring hero, hoping to spend one night with Dash and quell his starstruck mindset.

“Oh, wow, you’re … you’re actually here.”

Danny floated upside down and looked down at the jock who had appeared. He frowned, forgetting that he was talking to Dash Baxter, of all people. “Excuse me?”

Dash very quickly turned beet-red. “I uh … I mean, I just didn’t … I didn’t think you would actually have time to show-up and all. I didn’t think you were serious.”

That was not what Danny was expecting. It only confused him more. Didn’t think he was serious? Dash had seemed pretty confident that Phantom would show-up tonight to hang-out – he had even bragged to Danny Fenton about it. What had he been planning to do if Danny hadn’t shown up in his ghostly persona? Also, he was kind of offended. “Um, rude much?” He said. “No faith at all?”

Somehow, Dash turned even redder.

“That’s not what I meant!”

Danny looked at him, brows hiked.

Tonight, had not started out the way he thought it would.

■●■●■●■

Danny hadn’t anticipated actually having a real conversation with Dash Baxter – Casper High’s resident bully, A-lister, top football player and quarterback, and a bunch of other socially impressionable titles. He had pretty much assumed Dash had a two-dimensional character, and that his ‘date’ with the so-called bully would be mostly one-sided and heavy with Dash being starstruck. After all, what else could he expect? He was still Danny Fenton, no matter the ghostly guise, and the minute Dash realized what _his_ character consisted of, he probably wouldn’t be as interested in him. Then he would stop being his number-one fan, and Danny would never have to deal with the annoying guy again.

It didn’t happen like that.

After the less than desirable conversation starter, Dash actually had the decency to treat Danny like a person and not some untouchable idol. It was new for Danny to see Dash not drooling over Phantom. It looked pretty new to Dash, too. He seemed to have lost a lot of shame from the beginning of the night, still apologizing for insulting Danny like that.

But the problem came when Danny realized that Dash actually wanted to be friends. Not superficial friends, like most of the people at high school, but genuine. He asked Danny about his interests and tried his best to relate to the ghost boy.

Danny didn’t really know what to do about that.

He hadn’t preplanned a backstory for this. Half the time he wasn’t even paying attention to the conversation and was only trying to censor out any human details and clues that might allow Dash to connect the dots and realize – Danny _Phantom_ , Danny _Fenton_. No one knew that Phantom was only half ghost. Besides, Danny had no interest in getting all buddy-buddy with his bully. He stayed nice with Dash but put off anything that might make him think that Phantom liked him.

Unfortunately, Dash was either really oblivious, or really persistent.

“So, other than fighting ghosts and saving Amity Park, what else do you do?” He asked. It was probably the hundredth time he had tried to approach the topic. Awkwardness was tangible. Dash was sitting on the park bench while Danny floated. “Like, any hobbies? Sports?”

Danny couldn’t help but snort. “Yeah, sure, the dead guy does sports.”

Dash turned red, and Danny began to wonder if he has always been this nervous and awkward. He had never seen this from the bully before – at least, in school. Was this how he acted around his A-list friends? It was hard for him to wrap his head around. “Well, I mean … I just …”

Danny took pity on him – though he had no clue why – and laughed at the nervous jock. “Just joking, Dash. Of course, I have other things – well, like, when I was alive, I did.” Good job, Danny, he thought to himself, bullet averted. He could almost hit himself. “But, other than that, I just fight ghosts. That’s my job. Other than my obsession, there’s no other point.”

“Obsession?” Dash looked confused.

Danny bit his bottom lip, internally cursing himself. He forgot that not everyone was as ghost-obsessed as his parents. That ghosts have obsessions wasn’t common knowledge among Amity Park, and it was also a very sensitive topic. He had learned that the hard way when asking other ghosts what their obsessions were. Usually, it was easy to tell, but to outright ask? It was considered offensive and private, like asking someone to strip naked and put themselves on public display. You just didn’t do it. Over time, Danny had come to feel the same way about his obsession. His sister, Sam, and Tucker knew what his obsession was, but he still got touchy about the subject whenever they teased him.

But Dash didn’t know any of that, and Danny tried to remind himself. His ghost core got agitated when Dash again asked what he meant by ‘obsession.’ He shrugged it off. “Like, a ghost’s reason to exist. It’s purpose. But, it’s kind of a personal thing for ghosts, so don’t go around asking.”

Then, for the first time that night, the tables were turned.

Dash laughed. He pointed up at Danny, amused. “You’re turning green – like, blushing. I had no idea ghosts blushed green.”

Danny instinctively reached up to feel his cheeks, though he couldn’t see the green blush. His friends had mentioned it before, but he usually didn’t have time to blush when fighting ghosts and being thrown into walls. He found himself feeling embarrassed, though he didn’t know why. He tried to change the subject, still blushing. “Um, well … what about you? What do you do?”

Dash shrugged, still giggling at Danny. “Um, I play football.”

Okay. Wow. Underwhelming.

He had known the answer, but it still surprised him how flat Dash’s character was.

Before he could use his verbal filter, Danny turned right-side up and laughed right in his face. “Football? That’s it?”

Dash looked down at his feet and laughed awkwardly. He didn’t look too good. “Well, I mean, it takes up a lot of time. I’m hoping to get a scholarship and make it into the big leagues.”

That was a bit more personal than Danny had thought he would go. He hadn’t even bragged about his skill or team. Huh. “Well … like, besides football. You said you wanted to play big? Then that’s a career, not necessarily a hobby. What do you do for fun outside of football?”

For a second, it looked like Dash short-circuited. “Um …”

Danny quirked a brow.

“I, uh … I go to parties?”

“That sounds a lot like a question,” Danny said. Was Dash really this dumb? He decided to throw a limb to Dash to help him out. “I was always interested in space. You know, the stars and planets. I – or, I mean, I used to – read all about it and would stargaze.” Dash still looked confused. “And I also liked games. Video games, hanging out with friends, lots of shit. What do you do for fun?”

“I … I play football.” Dash still didn’t look like he got what Danny was talking about. “Football is fun for me.”

“Okay …” Danny said, kind of disappointed. This was the most popular guy at their high school. How the hell did Dash have such a flat life? “Well, that’s kind of boring. Football and partying? That’s it? Dude, that’s only two things. You haven’t tried anything else?”

The jock didn’t look very comfortable. “Why would I?”

Danny stopped floating around aimlessly, almost shocked. “Um, I don’t know, because football might not work out?” Dash didn’t seem to realize the problem. “Haven’t any guidance counsellors ever told you to have a backup plan? What if you get injured? Don’t make it big? You need a second choice. Also, it’s bland to center your life and so little. I have such a hectic shit-filled life, but I still wouldn’t trade it for what you have. It would be too boring.”

Dash looked hurt and Danny realized the implication of what he just said. He had kind of forgotten that right now he was Danny Phantom, and was speaking to Dash Baxtor. “Well, I mean, my parents set me up with football, and I enjoy it. They want me to focus on it so that I don’t need a backup plan.”

“Oh, that … kind of sucks.” Danny floated lower to the ground and sat criss-cross.

When Dash wasn’t beating him up and shoving him into lockers, Danny didn’t feel much hate for the guy. He almost felt bad for Dash, besides the fact that the jock didn’t have to worry about his life like he did. Dash had his entire future set-up. He didn’t have to struggle at all. But at the same time, Danny couldn’t imagine his parents forcing him to follow their plans. While they were enthusiastic about ghost-hunting, they weren’t going to force Danny into following them.

Dash didn’t have that kind of freedom.

Dash sat up straight. “What –”

Just then, an icy blue wisp flew out of Danny’s mouth, and he immediately shot up. He didn’t recognize the ectosignature. Definitely a havoc-wreaking ghost. “Ghost,” he said. He flew into the air and only paused when Dash called his name. He shrugged helplessly. “Have to go fight a ghost, sorry.”

■●■●■●■

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh, I hate moving slow, but I don't want to rush some things. I can't wait until I get to the fluff part. I have something cute planned for the next chapter.


	3. Ghostly Birthdays

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, someone is struggling with their feelings.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, not beta-read. If there are any glaringly obvious mistakes, feel free to point them out so I can fix them!

■●■●■●■

**Chapter 3 | Ghostly Birthdays**  
_(July 6, 2005)_

“What do you mean ‘he wasn’t that bad’?” Sam said. “He’s Dash!”

“Uh, in case you’ve forgot, he’s the one who shoved you in lockers,” Tucker said.

Danny rolled his eyes at Tucker. “No, shit. I’m just saying, when he’s not shoving me in lockers, I actually didn’t hate him. He wasn’t as big of a shit as he usually is. I’m not dumb – I know it was because I was Phantom – but I didn’t think he could be like that.”

“Clearly, you hit your head fighting Skulker.” Sam flicked a neon green seed to the ground, only slightly disgusted with it. After being friends with Danny for so long, she wasn’t surprised to find ectoplasm infecting her food. It was normal in the Fenton house. She went back to eating her watermelon. “If I wasn’t the smart one here, with the way you’ve been talking about Dash, I’d say you have some sort of crush on him.”

Danny blushed, freckles glowing green. “Yes, Sam, I have a crush on the dude who bullied me all of freshman year. Totally.”

He was open about his sexuality with his friends. They all knew that he struggled sometimes when trying to label himself. He had dated Sam, but also had numerous crushes on men before. But he had also never acted on any of said crushes. He knew his parents weren’t against that sort of thing, but he didn’t want to make a big deal out of it, and he also didn’t want word getting out around school. Amity Park wasn’t exactly known for its homophobia or anti-LGBTQ opinions, but that didn’t mean that there wouldn’t be a few hostile people. After all, Casper High was full of mean and degrading teenagers – possibly the worst environment to come-out in.

“I don’t know, man, you looked a little dreamy when talking,” Tucker said. “Speaking of which, why were you even talking to him? What could Dash do to make Phantom give him the time of day?”

They both looked at him expectantly.

Put on the spot, Danny flickered invisible, embarrassed. His friends laughed, which didn’t help. “I don’t know, okay? He caught me after a fight, and I was just trying to get away – but of course, he was stupid and took what I said seriously. I forgot about it until he brought it up at the park, when I was picking up garbage – which _you guys_ were supposed to be doing with me!”

Sam leaned forward, grinning maliciously. “Don’t change the subject, ghost boy.”

Danny scowled at the nickname. “Wow, okay, I confided in you guys because I wanted advice. I’m feeling kind of betrayed here.”

“But why would you need advice about talking to Dash?” Tucker asked.

Sam pointed at Danny. “Bingo.”

“You’re reading too deep into this,” he said. “Just eat your ecto-watermelon.”

Both Sam and Tucker laughed at Danny, who was blushing greener than before.

■●■●■●■

The next time Danny runs into the jock is in the park Amity is named after – the largest one in town – in the secluded little nature part. It’s weird because Danny had never pegged Dash as a nature guy, and Dash is sitting on the old wooden bench alone and strangely quiet. And Danny is backpedaling away from the situation before he can even come to full stop while flying, but it’s too late because Dash notices him anyway.

“Phantom!” He said. He both sounded and looked startled, but that kind of came with the package of being a ghost. “I didn’t think I would see you tonight.”

“Yeah, me either,” Danny muttered.

Dash frowned.

Danny didn’t want anything to do with Dash. After the teasing talk with his friends, he had come to his senses and realized that this was _Dash Baxter_. This was the guy who would regularly shove him into lockers, walls, pools – anything to embarrass or hurt him. It was insane to actually be nice with him after all that he had done. So, the best course of action was to avoid him.

“Um, well …” Danny forced a cough, but it was the start of summer, so he couldn’t even pretend that his ghost sense had gone off. There was no puff of blue smoke. “You know, busy night.”

Dash laughed awkwardly.

It was still weird to see Dash retain some sort of humility while in front of his hero. “Yeah, it’s been pretty busy. That’s why I’m out here. To get some peace – like you.”

Danny scowled at the idea – he wasn’t anything like Dash. He especially didn’t like how Dash spoke to him as if they were long-time friends, or friendly to each other. But with a level head, Danny stopped himself from saying something he would regret. He wasn’t the sarcastic Danny Fenton right now – he was Danny Phantom, hero and role model of Amity Park. Even if he didn’t like it.

“I can’t imagine you being that busy – it is the start of summer, isn’t it?” He said it as if he didn’t know.

Then Dash blushed – and again, it was as shocking as the first time Danny witnessed it. He awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. “Just a lot of parties today, a lot of people. I just needed to get away from it for a second. But, I mean, I guess you know what that’s like – having a fan club.”

“You, a fan club?” Danny blurted. Dash looked down, embarrassed, and Danny bit his bottom lip. Well, it wasn’t that far of a stretch, especially if _Danny_ had one. “If you’re tired of the parties, why don’t you just not go? It’s not that hard.”

“Well, it’s … uh, it’s my birthday.”

“Oh.”

Danny didn’t know Dash’s birthday was the sixth. He couldn’t decide whether he found it disturbing that his and Dash’s birthdays were so close.

“Um, well … happy birthday, I guess?”

And just like that, Dash’s embarrassed and awkward expression cleared, and his eyes literally lit up, like Danny’s would when he was emotional. He looked like Danny had just presented him with the greatest birthday gift in the world. “Thanks! I can’t believe –” He stopped himself, now blushing madly, and grinned sheepishly. “I … I mean, thanks. It’s nice to hear a genuine well-wish like that.”

Danny found himself floating down in front of the jock, feeling strange. “What?”

“Uh, like, wishing me a happy birthday?” He said. “Thanks.”

“Does no one else wish you a happy birthday?” Danny asked, honestly confused. It seemed like such a weird thing to dwell on, but he almost couldn’t believe what Dash was saying. Only thing was that the bully looked really genuine about it. “Like, that’s kind of sad.”

“Yeah, well, what’s it to you?” Dash snapped. “Not like you have a birthday.”

Danny blinked – there was the bully from school he remembered. He never thought he would live to the day where Dash was mad with his idol and hero. Nor did he think he could insult Dash with such a careless thing – his birthday. It was kind of stupid. “Well, I’ll have you know, I do have a birthday,” he said, arms crossed. “And I have a death day, too.”

This seemed to surprise Dash. He forgot his anger.

“Death day?” He said. “Like, a reverse birthday? Do you get presents and offerings?”

“Offerings?” Danny scrunched up his nose in distaste. “Ugh, that makes it sound like I’m dead in a grave, or something. It’s just the day a ghost was made.”

That was the simplest way he could put it without getting into the whole ‘how a ghost is made’ thing, which was like the ‘birds and the bees’ talk with humans. It was uncomfortable to talk about. Not all ghosts used to be alive, and that was the end of that. He wasn’t going to subject anyone to the talk Clockwork had given him.

Dash still looked confused. “So, like, a birthday?”

Danny relented. “Yeah, sure, whatever – I have two birthdays.”

“When?” Dash said, now excited.

“When?” Danny echoed. “When what?”

“When is your death birthday?” Dash asked.

Danny’s ghost core became agitated, and he knew his eyes would be flashing green. He watched as Dash shivered at the sudden cold in the area, despite it being the start of June and a nice night. “First of all, my _death day_ –” he said, putting an emphasis on the name “– is none of your business. That’s considered rude to ask about unless you’re invited into the topic. Which, yeah, I guess I kind of did – but still. Don’t go around asking ghosts that – it’s right up there with asking a ghost how they died. You just don’t do that, dude.”

Dash blushed for what seemed like the millionth time. He looked genuinely sheepish. “Sorry.”

Danny forced himself to take a breath, even though he didn’t really need to breathe because he was half dead. He had to remind himself again that not everyone was an expert on ghosts. They didn’t know the culture among ghosts. Even though he spent most of his time fighting other ghosts, he did know the lines that you didn’t cross. It was a mutual agreement – unwritten rules.

“No, it’s okay.” He waved off the topic. “Besides, we were talking about you. It’s your birthday? I can’t imagine you wanting to skip out on the parties for you, especially if you were so thankful someone – and a ghost, at that – told you ‘happy birthday.’”

“Well, my birthday isn’t exactly for me.”

“I’m going to be honest with you – that makes no sense.” Danny had decided to ignore the fact that he was actively engaging in conversation and only forcing himself to stay around Dash longer.

The jock was trying to use hand gestures to convey something, but he gave up. He shrugged helplessly up at Phantom. “Every year people throw me several parties, and it’s great and all, but they’re not really for me. My parents host a fancy party with all their friends, and I’m the only teen there. It’s really only to socialize with other big shots while using me as a reason to host. Then my friends throw me a party, but they only end up getting drunk and trashing my house or whatever place they rented. It’s fun in the beginning, but I need a break from all of it.”

“Oh.”

As much as he hated himself for it, Danny found himself sympathizing with his bully. Never mind the fact that he would be ecstatic to have enough friends to throw a big party, but he understood the part about needing a break. “Well, maybe try just hanging out with a few friends,” he said. “I understand being overwhelmed. So, just pick out your closest friends and do stupid shit. Have fun. Skip the other parties, if you really want. I mean, it is _your_ birthday. You get to choose what you want to do.”

Dash looked like he had never thought of that. “Huh …” He stared down at his sneakers, as if trying to wrap his head around the idea. “I never thought of it like that. I thought I had to be there because it was for me – you know, or else it wouldn’t look like I was grateful.”

Danny swallowed awkwardly. Okay, this was a side of Dash that he had never seen before – deep thinking and real feelings. He wasn’t sure if he liked it. He wanted out of the conversation before it turned into something personal. He cleared his throat. “Um, I guess you should have a good night, then. Happy birthday and all that.”

And he flew off without looking back.

■●■●■●■

_(July 7, 2005)_

When Danny told Sam and Tucker about Dash, they proclaimed him certifiably insane. Sam even went as far to say that he really did have a concussion from fighting ghosts full-time. After trying to convince them to stop laughing at him – and failing miserably – he finally managed to get them to help with gift ideas. But what did you get someone who you didn’t know? Unfortunately, the trio was stuck on what to get him, and Danny found himself questioning his sanity. Why the hell was he actually putting effort into buying his bully a birthday present?

Though if he had been in his right of mind, he wouldn’t have been floating in front of Dash Baxter’s house, harshly wrapped present in hand.

It wasn’t much – just some chocolate and a little note.

He didn’t have much money to buy anything better, and Sam refused to pay for Dash’s happiness. Besides, he had wanted to give Dash the present as soon as possible, so he didn’t have time to go looking for something better. He hoped to smooth-out any hard feelings he had stirred. He knew he wasn’t the nicest as Phantom to Dash, and more than a little awkward. He didn’t want to give anymore reason to call Phantom evil.

But now that he was here, in front of the jock’s house, he wasn’t sure how to do it.

He was realizing how stupid it was, too.

Like: _here, I’m the town’s resident ghost-boy superhero, I’ve been unsympathetic towards you, and you freak out over me like a psychotic fangirl every time we meet – but here’s some chocolate_.

What was he supposed to do? Leave it on the doorstep like some cliché unwanted baby? Was he supposed to phase it into Dash’s room and just hope that it wasn’t perceived as creepy and a violation of privacy? He really hadn’t thought it through, and he didn’t know why he was freaking out over the simplest thing.

Turns out, he didn’t need to make a choice. Dash opened the door right as he was about to fly away, mortified that he ever thought this was a good idea.

Dash’s jaw dropped.

“Phantom?”

■●■●■●■

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't want to say I have an update schedule - because I don't want to commit to something I can't promise - but I'm going out on limb and saying that I should be able to update at least once a week. Checking back on every Sunday or Monday is probably safe. Hope you like the new chapter! I guess this is turning out to be a slow-burn.


	4. I Guess

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Is a new friendship blossoming?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm tooting my own horn for finishing another chapter so soon after the last update. Enjoy!

■●■●■●■

**Chapter 4 | I Guess**   
_(July 7, 2005)_

Danny had been going through an emotional rollercoaster over the past week. Not that he would admit to that, though. He was still trying to wrap his head around his conflicted feelings over wanting to be friends with _Dash Baxter_ , of all people. And that Dash could actually be nice. And not a dick. It was all very new to him.

But this? This was pushing him very close to unstable mental health territory.

Because he was pretty sure he was in Dash Baxter’s room, floating over his bed and talking casually with the jock as if they were old-time friends. And he was pretty sure that was a teddy bear collection in the corner of the room. He was also pretty sure Dash had several Danny Phantom posters plastered across the walls. And it may be a bit of an understatement to say that he wasn’t sure if he had quite processed everything yet, because it was so much worse than his usual type of weird.

Past the initial awkwardness at being caught red-handed with a birthday present for Dash, Phantom had clumsily pushed the harshly wrapped gift into his chest and blushed a neon green. And shit – he knew Dash saw his mortifyingly bright blush – but it was too late to turn invisible and slip away.

He had stammered something stupid out, along the lines of, “happy birthday, I guess.”

As if it would make-up for the fact that it was kind of creepy the town’s resident ghost boy had decided to buy Dash Baxter a gift. That wasn’t even getting into the fact that somehow a dead person had bought chocolate from the convenience store. Did the Ghost Zone even have legal tender? Did Dash think he stole the chocolate? Did –

“I still can’t believe you got me a gift.”

“Yeah, well …” Danny shrugged helplessly. He was about as confused as Dash at his actions. “I mean, what do you want me to say? I’m sympathetic. My birthdays aren’t that great, either.”

He didn’t want to touch that topic with a thirty-foot pole.

But Dash didn’t need to know that.

The jock winced, as if remembering the last time they had breached a sensitive topic. “Stop me if I tread into touchy-territory, but I know you said you have a birthday and a death birthday. Do you celebrate both? What’s the point in even celebrating your birth if you’re dead?”

Danny felt slightly offended. “Dude, it’s the same reason you don’t stop celebrating your birthday after you’re an adult. It’s just … an occasion. Sure, you may not celebrate with a party, friends, or some other expensive shit, but you still acknowledge it. I mean, it’s the day you were born. That’s kind of a big deal, if you catch my drift. Being dead doesn’t change that.”

While he felt he didn’t have much room to talk – because, hey, he wasn’t completely dead yet – he had listened to other ghosts before. He was slowly learning more about the Ghost Zone. And while it was all new to him, the culture and rituals and ways of the ghosts seemed to come naturally. He understood it all because it was a part of him. All ghosts celebrated their birthday and death day; even if the ghost had no memory of their past life, they knew their day of creation. It was essential to keeping an identity to keep existing. For ghosts who had never been alive before, they simply treated their day of creation as a combination of the two – a death and birthday.

Dash shrugged flippantly. “Excuse me for not knowing shit about ghosts. I’m not part of that freaky Fenton family.”

Danny bristled.

“That’s not very nice,” he forced himself to say. Calmly. But the way Dash shivered suddenly, and how the windows frosted, he wasn’t sure he handled it as well as he thought. Thankfully, Dash seemed to be one of the most oblivious people on the planet, right up there with his parents. He didn’t notice the sudden cold was his doing.

Dash frowned at him. “Dude, they constantly hunt you. They shoot at you with those freaky guns. I thought you wouldn’t like them. What’s got you so riled?”

The ghost boy took a second to distance himself from the situation. Clockwork’s powers of controlling time would be wonderful about right now so that he could gather his thoughts. Dash was right; as Danny Phantom, he should absolutely loathe his parents. But he could never bring himself to even pretend he hated his parents. Even if they shot at him constantly and threatened to tear him apart molecule by molecule – like true loving parents, right?

He spoke carefully.

“True, but they aren’t … freaky. Or freaks. I mean, people called them crazy for years for believing in ghosts, but …” He gestured to himself, floating and lit-up like a green glowstick. “But I don’t fault them for hunting me. They think they’re protecting Amity Park. I can’t help it if most ghosts are, in fact, resentful towards the human world. I’m just the exception – they just can’t see that.”

Again, it looked as if Danny had somehow introduced a new concept to Dash. The jock looked perplexed, almost. Like he could never imagine the Fentons as anything but freaks.

“But – but they try to kill you daily!” He insisted.

Danny shrugged, the comment hitting closer than he wanted to admit. His human side argued with his ghost side about that, even though that shouldn’t be possible. His ghost core was him, but his ghost core was separate in his human body – and it was all so complicated. He was definitely one with his ghost half, and had accepted that, but sometimes it felt like both sides had their own personality and would clash over certain things. Like his parents.

Disturbingly, his human side screamed at him to hate his parents. His human side was logical. His human side wanted to stay alive. His human side saw how brutal and violent his parents were towards ghosts, and how much of a danger they were to him. Emotions be damned, his human side was constantly terrified of being found-out and tortured. But his ghost half was more driven by his obsession and emotions, ironically. His obsession was protection, especially towards those he held dear. Sam and Tucker were first priority – probably because they had been there during the accident, and his ghost core felt that – but his family was up there, too. He could never bring himself to harm his parents or hate them in such a feral way. His obsession was going to be the death of him – if he even could properly die.

“Yeah, but they have honest intentions. They aren’t evil or mean.” Danny knew it was a weak argument, but he couldn’t really dig deeper and explain why he felt fond towards them. “And honestly, I’m always about to die. I _am_ practically dead, anyway. That’s part of the job fighting ghosts.”

“Practically dead?” Dash said. “What –”

“Ghost joke,” he passed, hoping it would fly.

Thankfully, Dash didn’t question it.

“So …” Danny let out an awkward breath. Up until that point, things had been relatively smooth. He found he was actually enjoying his time with Dash. “Teddy bears?”

Dash groaned. “I was hoping you wouldn’t notice.”

“Well, it was either that, or the numerous posters with me plastered around the room.” Danny gave Dash a helpless smile. “Dude.”

“I … I’ll take them down,” Dash offered, stammering.

He immediately jumped from the edge of the bed. For a moment Danny was taken aback. He hadn’t meant to embarrass Dash so much. He quickly floated over to grab Dash’s wrist, stopping him from ripping down one of the posters. Danny decided to ignore his questions – like, how did Dash get his hands on this? Who made it? Why was someone making fucking fanart of him? – and tried to calm to jock. “No, seriously, I’m flattered. I just didn’t know people … did that. I’ve never seen it before.”

Dash was staring at his gloved hand, which was still currently on his wrist. Danny blushed green and pulled away, apologetic. “Sorry.”

“No … I just, I didn’t realize how weird it would seem to you. You are real, after all – not like Superman or The Flash.” He sat back down on his bed numbly. Absentmindedly, he rubbed at his wrist to try and generate warmth, and Danny winced. He forgot how cold he was sometimes. To him, cold was his normal temperature. He liked the cold.

“Well, if it helps, I’ve seen much weirder.”

“That doesn’t really help.”

Danny laughed.

He floated happily through Dash’s room, defying gravity and enjoying the mixed stares of confusion and awe coming from Dash. Something just clicked with Dash. He didn’t understand why, but he felt like he could consider Dash a friend. Well, at least, he would as Phantom. The sudden remembrance of his human half and Dash’s relationship with Danny Fenton dampened his mood somewhat. He floated a bit lower. He chose to focus on other things.

“But seriously, Dash –” He floated over to the admirable teddy bear collection “– this has to be at least, like, twenty stuffed animals. Can I ask why?”

“If you think I sleep with them or something, then you’re –”

Danny held up his hands. “Hey, I’m not judging – remember, I’ve seen way weirder things than a supposedly tough jock collecting cute teddy bears.”

“You think they’re cute?”

The ghost boy got close to one and squinted. It looked like one of the older ones and was skinny with a big head and big black eyes. “Yeah, I’d say this checks-out as certifiably cute.”

“You don’t think it’s … like, bad?”

“Bad? What, are they going to come to life and attack me?” Danny joked. “I don’t see why you would think that. I mean, they might hurt your reputation. But seriously – they’re not evil, are they?”

Dash squinted at Danny like he couldn’t figure out if he was serious about the last part.

“No … I mean, like, they aren’t possessed, or anything.”

“Oh, good.”

“You’re seriously worried about evil teddy bears?” He said. “But you fight terrifying ghosts every day!”

Danny snorted. “Dude, that doesn’t make them any less terrifying. Just means I have to deal with assholes everyday. And a fear of possessed teddy bears is perfectly sound where I come from. I’ve been attacked by possessed lunch meat, cardboard boxes, and have had to chase-down a ghostly pancake wreaking havoc in a Denny’s at three in the morning. I think fear is a good thing to have in my line of work. It keeps me alive.”

Dash chuckled. “Alive? Isn’t it a bit late for that?”

“Don’t change the subject,” Danny said. “Seriously, why?”

He shrugged. “I used to have a stuffed teddy bear when I was a kid, but my dad threw it out on accident when we moved houses. After that, my parents bought me stuffed animals all the time to try and make-up for it.” Dash scoffed as he said that. “As if that could replace my childhood toy. I didn’t really care after a while; my dad is just an asshole like that. But they kept buying me them, even when I was ten. I eventually told them to just stop, because I had lost interest, but … like, I wasn’t going to throw-away perfectly good teddy bears. And I liked them too much to give away, stupid sentimental bullshit. So, like, I’m a collector now … I guess.”

Phantom carefully picked up the teddy bear he was looking at. It had a bit of weight to it – like a quality toy, with good stuffing and smooth fluff – and he smiled with nostalgia. He had never had a teddy bear like Dash. “Well, if it’s anything, I had a blob – which is exactly what it sounds like. A disfigured stuffed thing with black beady eyes. Loved the thing, though.”

With his kind of parents, it was safe to say that he didn’t have a normal upbringing. Not only was he exposed to ectoplasm from a young age – hell, when he was in his mother’s womb – but he had grown up in a ghost centric world. His father had even tried to make his own ghost-styled stuffed animal for Danny when he was born. It turned out as a squishy blob-shaped stuffed piece and was covered in neon fluff and had two haphazardly sewn black beads as eyes. He still had it, in fact. It sat in the back of his closet, alone, but he would pull it out when he felt upset or anxious. Sometimes it helped to have something familiar and comforting – not that he would ever let anyone know. His parents and Jazz all thought he had sold it years earlier in a yard sale. He had never brought it up with Sam and Tucker, either. They probably thought he grew out of it.

But since Dash didn’t know Danny Phantom was Danny Fenton, he supposed it wouldn’t hurt to share this. After all, he wanted to make Dash feel better about his teddy bear collection. Though, for the half-dead life of his, he couldn’t figure out why.

They spent the rest of the night and the early hours of the morning talking, joking, and having awkward conversations. Surprisingly, it came easy to Danny. Dash was genuine with him. It wasn’t the same as hanging out with Sam and Tucker – who were his best friends – but he enjoyed his time with Dash. Sure, he had to sensor what he said so that he didn’t let anything slip, but the two of them got along well. At the end of it all, Danny looked at the clock and freaked-out, realizing how late – or early, depending on how you looked at it – it was. He still had to help Mr. Lancer with garbage pick-up for extra credit, and after that who knew what diabolical plan the English teacher had.

Dash didn’t seem to understand why a ghost would have a schedule, but he didn’t push when Danny told him he needed to leave. Before he phased out of the room, Dash looked down at his feet and let out a half-hearted laugh. “So, I guess we’re friends?”

“I … guess.” Danny didn’t see where this was going.

“Could we hang-out sometime later, then?”

For some reason the ghost boy felt himself smile. “Yeah – I guess.”

■●■●■●■

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to mention that I'm messing with canon a lot in this fanfic, so some characters may come off as a bit OC in nature. I apologize for this - I haven't watched the show in forever. I've also changed both Danny's and Dash's birthdays because I originally couldn't find their real birth dates. As for Danny's death day, I have also chosen when he had his accident - March of 2004. (Was the date ever really specified?)


	5. You Remembered?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny may have helped Dash celebrate his birthday, but he hadn't expected a return in favour.

■●■●■●■

 **Chapter 5 | You Remembered?  
** _(July 13, 2005)_

While Sam and Tucker initially hadn’t been supportive of his interest in meeting Dash again, that didn’t stop them from eventually trying to play matchmaker. Sam immediately started to scheme – openly, because she said she was determined to either prove Dash was an asshole at heart or nab Danny a romance only seen in steamy fanfiction – and delighted in making Danny blush green. Unsurprisingly, Tucker was less invested in the matchmaking bit, but more interested in using what Danny learned as blackmail for the bully. Danny vehemently denied him. He wasn’t about to use his Phantom persona to take advantage of people.

He and Dash would meet-up in the local parks, or Danny would drop-by his house and see if he was around – and no, that was not creepy – and they would just spend hours talking.

Danny never thought talking could be so interesting.

He finally understood his mother at the grocery store.

The two boys couldn’t exactly go out in public together – because Phantom hanging out with a local teenager might cause an uproar and would send his parents into a fit– but they found other ways to have fun. The ghost boy introduced Dash to astronomy and planetology. He would recount the stories of constellations he knew and would teach Dash. Unfortunately, the jock wasn’t interested. In turn, Dash brought a football to the park and taught Danny how to catch and throw.

Then came Danny’s birthday. He wasn’t happy, to say the least.

His parents loved him dearly, and he knew that. But they were so focused on ghost hunting and their lab experiments that they often forgot about special occasions like birthdays. While that alone used to make Danny upset – being ignored for their work – it wasn’t much better when they did remember.

When they did remember, they wanted to have a ‘family day’ with Danny. They wanted to take Danny down with them in lab. They tried to cook for him, which often ended up with ectoplasm contaminated food, or worse – food that tried eating _them_. They would take him out to go bowling or see a movie, but only end up completely embarrassing Danny because they refused to lose their bright hazmat suits and ghost focused behaviours. A few years Danny’s dad tried to take him on a ghost hunt, before Danny even believed in ghosts, and it was underwhelming.

Danny’s friends knew he enjoyed his birthday about as much as he enjoyed Christmas, so they didn’t bother with formalities. The most he scored out of the occasion was some candy and a forced free therapy session from Jazz.

Which was why he was completely surprised to wake-up to a text from Dash.

After much consideration, he had decided to share his number with Dash so that they could contact each other. And as much as his friends teased him about it, he insisted they were just friends. Besides, Dash would never have need of Danny Fenton’s phone number – why would he? – and therefore there was nothing wrong with convincing Dash that yes, ghosts could have phones.

> Dash: **hangout today??**

Danny squinted at the tiny Nokia screen and saw that it was only ten in the morning. It was summertime, and this was one of the few days where he didn’t have to report to volunteer duty. Why had he woken up so early? And why was Dash even up this early?

If there was one thing he had learned about the jock, it was that he was sleep addicted.

Nevertheless, he supposed ghosts sleeping-in – especially superhero ghosts – would sound like a lame excuse. He didn’t have anything better to do, anyway, and didn’t have any ghostly troubles. He shot a text back and agreed to meet, asking where and when. To his surprise, he got a response almost immediately.

> Dash: **Amity Park, in 15?**

Danny almost wants to make a joke. He wants to say – “well no shit, Amity Park, but _where_ in Amity Park?” – but he knows the joke is overused. He just texts Dash and goes ghost.

■●■●■●■

When he arrives at the park, he sees Dash in the same place they had met several times before. The jock is standing in front of a giant oak, slouched and hands behind his back. He looks nervous. By default, Danny becomes nervous. A million situations run in his head – that maybe Dash knew his secret now, or was being overshadowed, or was being forced to do this – but he dismissed them. Automatic anxiety was a setting he was probably never going to learn how to turn off.

He exchanged his tail for legs and landed in front of Dash, now confused. The jock still looked overly nervous and was now turning a slight shade of pink in the face of Phantom. Before he can even greet Dash, or ask what’s wrong, something is shoved in his face and he’s suddenly stumbling back. The something is soft and squishy and fluffy.

He opens his eyes to see a teddy bear now in his hands.

“What the fuck?” It’s out of his mouth before he registers it. “Attack of the teddy bear?”

Dash gives an awkward laugh. “Happy birthday, Phantom.”

The realization is sudden, and Danny takes a moment to understand. He’s halfway to asking Dash what’s going on before he remembers. “Oh … _Oh_.”

“What, did you forget your own birthday?”

The ghost boy bit his bottom lip and smiled sheepishly. “Uh … kind of.”

Dash stands there in shock. Danny takes the time to admire the teddy bear, which he was assuming was Dash’s gift to him. It was a fluffy black bear. Its eyes were little beads, and Danny couldn’t help but feel fond towards the stuffed animal. But while it was cute and all, he didn’t understand. Why would Dash get him a teddy bear, of all things?

“Oh my god, after all that shit you gave me for making my birthday _mine_ and having my _own_ fun, you go and forgot your own?” He said. “Fucking hypocrite if I ever saw one.”

“And you remembered?” Danny said, scrunching up his face.

“Well, of course I did,” Dash said, like it was obvious. “I mean, you helped me celebrate my birthday, and we barely even knew each other. I wasn’t going to miss yours.”

“It’s been a week,” Danny said. “I think we know each other.”

“Still,” Dash griped, “I can’t believe you. We’re going to have to do something about this.”

Danny took a step back, holding the teddy bear to his chest. It seemed Dash had completely forgotten about his present to Phantom. “Um, excuse me? I came out here to have a good time, and I’m honestly feeling so attacked right now.”

Dash frowned. “Like hell I’m going to attack you – come on and bring your teddy with you.”

“Oh, and that –” Danny held out the cute thing “– a gift? A teddy bear? Really?”

Again, Dash turned red. “I thought you said they were cute.”

Danny looked back at the stuffed animal and smiled. “Yeah, I did.”

■●■●■●■

The rest of the day was startlingly good. There was a suspicious lack of ghost activity, and Danny wasn’t sure if they knew it was his birthday and were holding a temporary truce – because that had happened for his death day – or if it was just a normal quiet day. Dash didn’t seem to notice either way because he was too caught-up in trying to get Danny to have fun.

To his credit, he did pull out all the stops.

He took Danny back home and showed him his game system, and the two played random games for hours on end. At first, Danny was afraid Dash would notice the similarities between Danny Fenton being a game geek, and Danny Phantom being a game geek. That was ignoring the fact that a ghost boy knew how to use modern technology and had already played several of the games Dash had. But of course, he didn’t notice. Why would he even make the connection? Phantom was dead, Fenton was alive. There was nothing to connect.

Because they couldn’t go somewhere public – for obvious reasons – Dash and Danny found ways to entertain themselves around the house. Five games of foosball, a one-on-one basketball play, two horror movies, and an entire pizza later the sun was starting to set.

Danny hadn’t even realized how late it was.

Had so many hours really flown by that quickly? He felt disturbed.

Checking his phone, he saw that he had numerous texts from his friends and Jazz. No texts from his parents, but he wasn’t surprised. Before he could open the chats and see if he had accidentally caused a panic by going MIA, Dash pulled him from his phone.

“Now that it’s later, we can go star-gazing!” He was already getting his shoes on. The dynamic between them could be awkward – almost tangible, at times – but Dash seemed to have long gotten past his starstruck impression of Danny. Now it was two teenagers fooling around. Danny finished the last of his pizza and phased through the chair and table to join Dash, but then paused.

“I thought you didn’t like stargazing. You hated it last time.”

Dash looked up at him as he hopped around on one foot, trying to pull his left shoe on. “Well, no shit. I don’t get all that astronaut crap. But it is your birthday. Besides, even I can admire something pretty.”

“Okay,” Danny said, quiet. “If you say so.”

■●■●■●■

“And tonight, it’s a waxing gibbous moon,” Danny said. It felt like he had been prattling on for hours, probably because he had. “Personally, I find the full moon the most beautiful, but I guess that’s kind of cliché. I also think a supermoon is amazing, though that’s just a nickname – astronomers call it a perigean moon – and it’s when the full moon occurs near perigee. It’s one of the greatest things you’ll ever see in the sky.”

“I can think of something better,” Dash said.

“What?”

“You.”

“Oh.”

It took a moment for Danny to register what Dash had just said, and what he had meant by it. He was sure he was blushing green. His freckles were always neon.

They fell silent, Danny’s two-hour long space and astronomy talk seeming dull now. He knew that Dash probably didn’t understand anything he was talking about, but it was nice to have someone listen for a change. His friends had long past gotten over his human obsession – a mini obsession of sorts for his ghost side – and his parents were more interested in chemistry and biology. Jazz had never been interested in space; psychology was her thing. Danny had been the black sheep of the family long before the ghost thing.

But even with all his knowledge about astronomy, and his freakishly psychology obsessed sister, he still couldn’t tell if he had just been flirted with. He also didn’t know what to do if Dash had, just in fact, flirted with him.

“Um …” Danny kept his eyes trained on the stars. “Thank you?”

“What, are you not flattered?” Dash said. He didn’t look as confident as before. “I thought I was being pretty clever there.”

“No, no … I just … I’ve never received a compliment like that before.” Danny tried to think back to the last time someone had genuinely complimented his appearance, as either Danny Fenton or Danny Phantom, but he came up blank. Family was exempt because they were obligated to be nice.

Dash laughed abruptly, and Danny startled, floating off the ground. Dash sat up and wiped wetness from his eyes, he was laughing so hard. “I’m sorry, but do you expect me to believe that?” Danny just stared at him. “I mean, you’re _the_ Danny Phantom. You’re Amity Park’s personal superhero-ghost thing. You have tons of admirers – at least at Casper High – and I can think of more than several people who would give their right foot to be where I am right now.”

“If you think that’s not unsettling, I’m going to be worried about you.”

The jock chuckled. “I mean, even now, you’re acting modest. What the fuck?”

“What the fuck, indeed,” Danny agreed.

They fell silent again.

“You know, our constellation isn’t visible right now,” Danny said, trying to break the awkwardness. “Our zodiac sign is Cancer, but you can only see it in March.”

“What the fuck? That doesn’t make any sense. Why is it the sign for July, then?”

“It’s not the sign for July. I mean, the dates vary from opinion to opinion, but as I know it, the Cancer zodiac is from the twenty-second of June to the twenty-second of July. But you can usually only view it well in March, though sometimes you can make it out in late February or early April.” Danny picked at the grass on the ground, still floating. Dash laid back down. “I guess it doesn’t make any sense, does it? Huh, never connected those dots. Guess it doesn’t work like that.”

“We should start a petition to change that,” Dash said.

Danny snorted. “Dash, you can’t change the stars.”

“What if we told them it was your birthday?” He said. “I bet that would sway them. Or you could use some kind of ghost shit – like … telepathy, or whatever.”

“Telepathy isn’t a ghost power.”

“Well, it should be.”

More silence.

“I’m sorry if I offended you.”

Danny looked at him. “What?”

“For … for that line – or whatever the hell you want to call it. I really thought it was clever, but I guess it was just awkward.” Dash didn’t look at Danny. “I’m not used to … you know, not being received well when I pull shit like that. I knew it was corny. But my friends would usually laugh.”

“Well, if it’s any consolation, I thought it was clever, too,” Danny said. “But yeah, definitely corny.”

■●■●■●■

The two of them walked back to Dash’s house, even though Danny insisted that he could fly them back in literally half the time. Dash was insistent when he said he didn’t want to be carried like a damsel in distress, and so they laughed and joked all the way back, ignoring what happened earlier. When they reached Dash’s house, the jock ran in and grabbed Danny’s teddy bear.

“Don’t you dare forget this,” he said. “I don’t want my parents thinking I’m still collecting.”

Danny chuckled and took the stuffed animal from Dash. “I would never dream of it.”

Then, he did something that he wasn’t so sure he should have done. He hugged Dash, touching and all, and then pulled away with a smile. His ghost core buzzed happily, and he basked in the fondness he felt. The jock looked like he had short-circuited. “Thanks, so much for today. Didn’t think I could actually enjoy a birthday.”

Dash stuttered. “You’re … thanks! I mean, you’re welcome. Anytime … yeah.”

Danny laughed good-naturedly and held up the little teddy bear he had received. “Now I’m going to have to think up something to beat this next year. Totally upstaged my chocolate.”

And wasn’t that a thought – _next year_. Where had that come from? As far as Danny knew, he had no intentions of befriending Dash and sticking around; or at least, he didn’t used to. Now he wasn’t so sure. He wasn’t sure why he wasn’t sure. The answer should have been quite obvious – Dash was a dick to him. He didn’t deserve the time of day from Phantom, secretly Fenton.

He waved at Dash and said his goodbye, and then left. Like a fucking awkward idiot.

■●■●■●■

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The poor boys can't seem to get around the awkwardness enough to let a little love in. Next chapter will be a jump into the next month - this slow burn will be burning a little quicker. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it!


	6. You're Pretty, Too

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happens when Sam starts to play match-maker?

■●■●■●■

**Chapter 6 | You’re Pretty, Too**   
_(July 14, 2020)_

“Wait, so you supposedly hate your birthday, but you spent it with Dash?” Tucker screwed up his face in distaste. “Man, maybe Sam was right about that concussion.”

Said goth girl, who was sitting across the room, looked up from her phone. She had been looking for fertilizer for her garden back at home. “Of course, I was right. I’m always right.” She propped herself up on her elbows. “But maybe Danny has a point –” she pointedly ignored Tucker’s loud disagreement “– if he really wants to hate his birthday, who better than Dash to spend it with?”

“Guys, stop teasing,” Danny said. He was currently floating above his bed, upside down. He had just spent the last hour trying to justify what had happened yesterday. He didn’t know why he felt he had to do that, but his friends weren’t helping.

“Well, sorry for being a little salty,” Sam said. “It’s not everyday someone decides to have a birthday date with someone he barely knows – his fucking bully – over his closest friends.”

“It wasn’t a date!” Danny cried.

“Wrong thing to focus on,” Sam pointed.

Tucker snorted. “Dude, you should have seen your face when you talked about it. Almost looked like you were talking about space for a second.”

Danny growled in frustration, throwing his hands up. “I told you – I didn’t mean to be with him the whole day. I didn’t know what he had planned. I didn’t even check my phone until the afternoon. How was I supposed to know you guys were trying to get hold of me?”

“You’re not getting off the hook easy,” Tucker said. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to deal with Jazz when she thinks you’re dead?”

The ghost boy quirked a brow. “One – I am dead. Two – she’s my sister. Of course, I know.”

Sam tucked her phone away and clapped her hands together loudly, startling Danny another foot in the air. He partially phased through the ceiling, then floated back down, annoyed. Sam grinned up at him, purple eyes narrowed. “Now that we’ve chewed your ears off for ditching us, time for operation Woo a Dash. Or, as I like to call it – WAD.”

Danny choked and fell from the air onto his bed. “What?”

“I know, right?” Tucker said. “WAD – what a shit name.”

Sam snapped at him. “Hey, you named your PDA Karen. The fact that you named your PDA is a sin – let alone the fact that you chose Karen, of all names.”

“Guys!” Danny protested.

“Oh, no,” Sam said, wagging her finger at the ghost boy. “You got yourself into this mess by deciding to befriend Dash. Now, we’re going to help you by giving that extra push. Preferably Dash off a cliff, but whatever works in the end.”

“Do you want to get us together, or kill Dash?” Danny said.

“Both.” Sam shrugged. “Eh, I don’t actually know.”

Danny put his face in his hands, groaning and blushing green. “Have either of you even considered the fact that maybe he doesn’t feel the same?”

Sam jumped up from her spot on the floor. “AHA! So, you admit!”

“What? No!”

“Did so!”

“Did not!”

“Guys, Dash is totally gay.” Two sets of eyes landed on Tucker. The tech geek shrunk back from the attention and shrugged. He tapped the screen of his PDA some more. “I mean, come on – it’s so obvious. He hasn’t actually dated anyone at Casper High. I mean, Paulina _could_ count, except they never made it official. It was more of a popular social thing than anything else.”

“Wait, I nabbed Paulina before Dash?”

Sam barked out a laugh. “Oh my god – how did we never piece that together? Casper High’s golden boy and top A-lister has less experience than the loser trio.”

“You know, I bet he’s still a virgin,” Tucker tossed.

Danny’s pillow flew across the room of its own accord and smacked him in the face, knocking him from his chair to the floor. Tucker shoved the pillow off and glared. Danny made a disgusted face. “Dude, you totally deserved that. That sort of shit isn’t something you just … I don’t know. It doesn’t matter anyway – you are still a virgin, too.”

Tucker grinned. “But you aren’t – neither is Sam.”

This time, a magazine flew across the room, hitting Tucker squarely in the forehead.

“Gee,” Sam said. “I wonder how that happened.”

■●■●■●■

_(July 16, 2005)_

“Wait, you want me to do _what_?” Danny said.

Sam rolled her eyes and continued to mess with his hair. Danny kept trying to dodge her until eventually he just turned intangible, completely avoiding her. She pressed her lips into a thin line. “I want you to invite Dash to do something.”

“But … why?” He didn’t understand. “I thought you didn’t like him.”

The goth shrugged and gave up trying to fix Danny’s hair. “I don’t like him – I hate him for what he’s done to you. But obviously, he has something going for him, because you like him.” She shushed him when he tried to protest. “There’s no denying it. You haven’t had this bad of a crush on someone since Paulina or even me.” Danny settled and crossed his arms, pouting. She laughed. “You told me that he’s invited you to hangout several times – but you’ve never invited him to something.”

Danny scoffed. “Well, sorry for thinking it’s a little weird that the local ghost boy would invite someone to something.” Sam hit him upside the head, and he cursed.

“Well, if you don’t put any effort in, nothing is going to happen!”

“We don’t even know if he’s gay!”

Sam put her hands on her hips. “You’re right – he might be bisexual.”

“Sam …” Danny whined.

She huffed. “I don’t know why you’re so shy about this. You certainly weren’t shy about Paulina. Even when she treated you like a bag of dirt, you followed her like a lost puppy.”

Danny hunched his shoulders over, somber suddenly. “I don’t know … I mean, I’m serious, though – what if he doesn’t think of me like that? Can people even crush on ghosts? Would that be a turn-off? I just don’t want to lose what we already have. When he’s not pounding me into metal – when he thinks I’m Phantom – we actually get along. I … like talking with him. I don’t want to be the one to screw that up and ruin his image of his idol.”

Sam forced him to scooch over on the bed to make room for her, and she sat down beside him. “Well, look at us. We dated, and we’re still best friends. Hell – I’m trying to set you up with someone else!”

She pushed at him and they both laughed.

“So, the only way to make sure this works out is to invite him to something he’ll like,” Sam said. She smiled and leaned her chin on her hand, looking up at him with purple eyes. “So, you’ve known Dash personally now for a whole two weeks. What does he like to do – you know, besides shove losers in lockers.”

Danny groaned. “That’s just it – he’s, like, a two-dimensional character.”

“And you like him because? …”

Danny hit himself. “I don’t know, okay? Like I said, he’s nice to talk to. But he is really lacking in hobbies. All he does is party and play football, and he doesn’t even really enjoy parties.”

Sam snapped her fingers. “That’s it!”

“Care to include me in your revelation?” Danny said.

She jumped off the bed excitedly and rushed to his closet. She pulled out Danny’s old rollerblades, a box of playing cards, and then even a musty old baseball bag. Danny scrunched up his nose at the smell; Sam didn’t seem to notice it. Damn ghost senses. “If Dash is such a flat guy, why don’t you just invite him to try new things? Introduce him to different sports – because that’s his thing – and maybe something will stick. That will definitely give you something to bond over.”

Danny looked on in doubt. “I don’t know – he didn’t like when I tried to teach him astronomy.”

Sam gave him a look. “I think you’re the only one in Amity who actually liked the ninth-grade astronomy unit. You’re weird like that.”

“Right, cause _that’s_ what makes me weird.”

■●■●■●■

_(July 17, 2005)_

“What are you waiting for?”

“Don’t push me!”

“We’ve been sitting here for five minutes!”

“I’m working up my nerve!”

“Yeah, well, you obviously don’t have one. Here, let me –”

Chaos ensued as Sam lunged at Danny to grab his cellphone, and Danny phased through his bed and floated across the room, blushing green. Sam didn’t give up. She reached under Danny’s bed and pulled out the Fenton Boo-merang, throwing it at the ghost boy. He yelped and ducked, to no avail, because the damn thing was locked onto his ecto-signature. It hit him over the head and dropped to the ground with a metallic clang. Danny dropped his phone as he floated in a haze, rubbing at his sore forehead.

Sam cried out in victory and snatched up the Nokia. No damage was done – it was near impossible to break, compared to Tucker’s PDA. “Hah!”

She quickly sent the text that Danny had been hovering over.

Danny cried out in shock and immediately phased the phone out of her hands, looking at the screen in absolute terror.

> Phantom: **hey, u want to hangout in the park tonight? I’ll bring the rollerblades.**

“You absolute masochist!”

Sam cackled.

■●■●■●■

“So, what’s this I hear about rollerblades?” Dash asked. He was leaning on the big oak they had met at numerous times before, and not many people were out this late. Those who still lingered in the park – mostly elders and people not paid enough to care about life – didn’t seem to notice the glowing ghost boy. Seeing ghosts, much less Phantom, wasn’t the spectacle it used to be. Only the younger generations seemed to be enamoured by Danny Phantom, though they did get some stares.

Danny hefted up the two pairs Sam had bought him with a sheepish smile. “Surprise?”

Danny may not have grown much since his elementary years, but he was close to puberty, and his old rollerblades didn’t fit anymore. Courtesy of Sam, who easily swiped her mother’s credit card, Danny now had two new pairs of rollerblades. He hoped she got their sizes right.

Dash laughed. “Okay, I’ve never gone rollerblading before. This’ll be interesting.”

And interesting it was.

Danny phased his rollerblades on to avoid the struggle of having to fight with his ghostly boots – which seemed to be almost attached to his body as much as his hazmat suit – and then helped Dash get his on. It started to get funny when Danny had to help Dash stand up and found that the jock was more than a little nervous and unbalanced.

Dash almost fell on his ass, and Danny laughed as he caught and righted him. The jock scowled. “If this was just to embarrass me –”

“No, it’s just – it’s funny. You’re this big shot at football, but … rollerblading? You’re totally out of your element.” Danny exchanged his tail – which had winked into existence when he flew to catch Dash – back for his legs. He balanced on his rollerblades and grinned up at Dash. “But we’re kind of on equal footing here, because I haven’t gone rollerblading in years.”

Dash attempted to move towards Danny but flailed his arms around and crashed into Danny. The ghost boy laughed airily and caught Dash, spinning the two of them around and sending Dash in another direction. The jock yelled out in surprise and shakily stopped himself, gripping the nearby bench with white knuckles. It had been years, but Danny easily found his balance and moved around with grace, something he usually lacked. Feeling pity for Dash, who had fallen again, Danny rolled over to him and held out his hands to help.

“The most important part of rollerblading is the most obvious – staying upright.” Dash gave him a dirty look, and Danny smiled. “Generally, it’s easy, but posture also matters. Here, like this – lean forward slightly to maintain your center of gravity. Just practice standing and walking in the skates. Trying to do anything else will result in getting a sore ass.”

Once again, Danny helped Dash to his feet.

The jock cautiously took a step forward in his skates and almost slipped again. Danny grabbed his arm to steady him. “No, don’t step like that. You need to glide – like, um … like skating on ice.”

Dash gave him wide eyes. “I don’t skate.”

Danny gaped. “But – you play sports. What about hockey?”

Dash pulled his arm from Danny’s grasp and looked away defensively. “My mother didn’t want me playing hockey because she thought it was too dangerous.”

“So, she thought hockey was too dangerous, but she let you play football?”

■●■●■●■

The rest of the night flew by, quite literally. Danny had long given up rollerblading and just floated around Dash anxiously, having learned that most of his time would be spent catching the jock from a concussion waiting to happen. Sometimes Danny forgot just how vulnerable humans were. Ever since the accident, he had gained enhanced healing. He didn’t bruise or break as easily anymore.

When Dash finally had his fill of rollerblading and managed to skate down a stretch of sidewalk without faceplanting, the two called it a night and decided to go out in the field to stargaze. It was one of Danny’s favourite pastimes, and he loved that someone else wanted to do it with him – even if Dash didn’t enjoy it like he did. Sam and Tucker didn’t usually like to indulge Danny like this. So, there they laid in the grass, side by side and pointing at the dark sky.

Danny floated and brushed the grass, happy. He pointed at the stars and named them easily, the names rolling off his tongue. “There’s the Little Dipper, part of Ursa Minor constellation.”

Dash squinted. “I don’t see shit.”

“See – the really bright stars, the North Star, Kochab, and Pherkad, are easiest to spot in the Little Dipper – and they connect to form a scoop of sorts. Well, I mean, I always thought it looked like a scoop. That’s not in any myths, though.”

“Oh, so we can just make-up our own interpretation?” Dash said. He pointed at a group of stars and hummed. “Well, I think that looks like a house.”

“You mean Libra?”

“Isn’t that a zodiac thing?”

“Yeah, zodiacs are based off constellations. That ‘house’ is the Libra constellation – though it’s not supposed to form a house. It’s actually a set of scales.”

Dash groaned. “Oh, come on! It looks nothing like scales!”

Danny laughed an sat up, glowing and eyes bright. “Well, no harm in creativity leeway.”

The jock snorted. “Me? Creative? Please.”

“You never know. Some people are least what you expect.” Danny almost laughed at the irony in his statement. If only Dash knew how true it was.

Dash shook his head. “Nah, I’m only good for football.”

Danny frowned. “What?”

“Football – that’s my talent. I’m shit at everything else.”

“Well, like, have you tried anything else?” Danny asked. He didn’t know why, but this was bugging him, when it had absolutely no right to. “Of course, you’re good at other things.”

“Name one other thing I’m good at,” Dash challenged. “Bet you anything on it.”

Silence filled the air between them, and Dash turned to look back up at the stars, seemingly forgetting the subject. However, Danny floated upright and crossed his legs, thinking hard. Something else Dash was good at. “Well,” he said, “I like talking to you.”

Dash looked confused. “What?”

“You’re really good at talking,” Danny said. “That must count for something, because I really enjoy talking with you. You’re also really good at making me laugh.”

The jock looked lost. He flushed red. “Well, I …”

But Danny wasn’t done. At that moment, he wasn’t Danny Fenton, and this wasn’t Dash Baxter. This was someone who he had grown fond of and he saw their self depreciating behaviour – he knew it well, because he often did the same thing to himself. “No, really. I look forward to talking to you. It’s a change of pace. You listen really well. You’re genuine with me. And I … I appreciate that.”

“I’m not really like that,” Dash tried. He suddenly looked guilty. “I’m not … I’m not a good person like you. I don’t deserve your praise.”

And he really did not, Danny knew, but still.

“But you’re good to me,” he said.

 _You’re good to Phantom_ , he thought.

“And if you think you’re not good, you can always change. Anyone can change.” Danny didn’t know if he was believing the words he was sprouting, but it felt like the right thing to say. “Being a good person isn’t something inherent – it’s a choice. Humans are humans. They’re flawed. You can be good if you choose to do so.”

For a long time, Dash didn’t say anything, and Danny was afraid he had dug a little too deep with the personal shit. But then he looked over and saw that Dash was almost in tears. He felt absolutely terrified; did he do something wrong?

“So, you actually like me?”

“Of course.” The words were out of his mouth before he had time to process.

Dash propped himself up and looked over at Danny. He was acutely aware that he was blushing green, which was probably showing off his freckles. Dash smiled. “Well, you’re really good at a lot of things, too. You save people all the time, you’re strong because you fight ghosts, you’re witty and smart, you’re pretty, you’re kind to others, you’re –”

“I’m pretty?” Danny didn’t know if that was the right thing to zero-in on, but it took him by surprise. Wide blue eyes looked over at him. Dash looked mortified.

“I didn’t – I mean, you’re not bad looking, but I didn’t mean – I’m sorry –”

“I think you’re pretty, too.”

“Oh.”

Danny smiled sheepishly.

“And I would love to have another date.”

■●■●■●■

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I lied about jumping ahead in time. That's probably going to happen in the next chapter - I just sat down and had all these fluffy ideas, and I couldn't resist. This ship might be taking sail.


	7. Summer Feels

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Starts off really light hearted, but the boys get caught up with some summer and angsty feels ...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for going MIA for a bit! Had a lot of trouble finishing this chapter. Please enjoy - it's long!

■●■●■●■

**Chapter 7 | Summer Feels**   
_(July 18, 2005)_

When Sam heard about the stunt that Danny pulled, she absolutely lost her shit. Even Tucker was documenting it in his PDA. Sam fluttered about Danny, anxious. “Oh my god, you basically asked him out, I didn’t think you had the balls.” She picked at Danny’s hair, then pulled back and grinned wide, almost shaking with excitement. She didn’t look as goth as she tried to portray. “And he said yes? He basically agreed to date you?”

Danny pushed her away, feeling like Sam was a mother hen. He was aware that he was blushing heavily, but he was happy about Sam’s support. “Well, not exactly. I didn’t ask him outright –”

“You said you would like another date,” Sam said, “that’s pretty outright.”

Tucker nodded. “You have to agree with her. She’s the goddess of matchmaking here.”

“And I _guess_ he said yes,” Danny said. “I mean, he didn’t exactly say no.”

“Where are you going to take him next?” Sam demanded. She got up and went over to Danny’s closet, rummaging through his clothes. She pulled out an old wrinkled dress-shirt that was white and she scrunched up her nose in disapproval. “You’ll want to look good.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Sam, I’m a ghost. I’ll be in my hazmat suit.”

Sam sighed dejectedly. “It’s a shame. So much gothic ghostly potential – wasted.”

Tucker scoffed. “Please – I can help Danny with his style. Besides, it’s not all about fashion – it’s also about attitude. And I’ll be the perfect wingman, because I’m already TF – too fine.”

Danny giggled as he watched his friends argue over how to help him. It felt really nice to have support like this for his relationship with Dash – something he wasn’t sure he had quite processed yet. He had blatantly asked out _Dash Baxter_. And the jock hadn’t said no. For some reason, his heart, which didn’t really need to beat, was racing. His breathing – though he didn’t need to breathe – was uneven, too. It was the first time in a long time that he had felt this affected as a human, and it was exhilarating.

“Danny!” Sam snapped. “Please tell this dim-witted numbskull that if you’re going to take Dash out for dinner, it won’t be the Nasty Burger.”

Tucker threw up his hands. “All I’m saying is I would find that pretty fucking romantic.”

“Can’t go out for dinner,” he reminded them. “My parents would shit a cow if they saw an interspecies relationship – especially if it’s Phantom getting friendly with residents.”

Sam put her hands together like she was praying and pressed them to her mouth, staring off at the ground. She took a deep breath. “Okay, okay,” she said, waving flippantly, “it’s not over just yet. We can make this work.” She paced the room before turning to Danny. “I’m sorry, but the whole ghost boy thing is really limiting your possibilities here. Any chance you can turn down the glow?”

Danny screwed up his face. “And get busted as Danny Fenton? No thanks.”

“No, think about it,” she said. She went back to retrieve the shirt she had pulled out earlier, though she still didn’t look happy with it. “I mean, obviously, we’re going to have to go with darker colours to drown-out your glow. But if we cover you enough, you could pass as human.”

The halfa snorted. Pass as human. The irony.

Sam threw some pants at him and continued digging around in his closet. Tucker looked between Danny and the goth, then let out an awkward laugh. “Well, I’m not going to sit here and be useless. I can be your wingman!”

“Wingman?” Danny parroted.

“Yeah!” Tucker agreed, eager. He actually set down his PDA, which meant he was serious. “We could hook up walkie-talkies, or the Fenton ear pieces, and I could secretly talk and give you advice – like they do in the movies.” He covered his mouth in a mocking manner and whispered in a funny voice, “Report, Phantom, report – the target is red. I repeat, the target is red. He’s blushing. Time to make a move before we lose the advantage! Over.”

The goth threw a shoe at him, and he yelped and ducked for cover beneath Danny’s desk. Sam waved the other shoe at him in a threatening manner. “No – you are not ruining this for Danny. I refuse to let you ruin this.” She finally smoothed out the shirt she had picked. “Leave it to the professional.”

“And, uh, how many people have you set-up?” Danny asked, worried.

She shrugged. “Just my cousin, though it was … well, I could have sworn he was gay!”

■●■●■●■

_(July 23, 2005)_

The initial rush of hanging out with Dash and having a pretty easy week, as far as the low ghost activity went, deflated quickly. He still had to spend three days a week working with Mr. Lancer and a bunch of other losers who hadn’t been able to bring up their grade, just like him. The plus side was that they automatically got volunteer hours for the work, but it still sucked that he had to spend his summer with his least favourite teacher.

Outside of that, every time he ran into Dash when he wasn’t pretending to be a ghostly hero, a little bit of him died inside. It felt like he would be fully dead before the end of the summer at this rate.

It wasn’t often that he saw the jock – because somehow Dash had managed to pull a passing grade and didn’t have to do volunteer work – but it was impossible to completely avoid him. And every time Dash saw him, he would tease him and rough him up, though not nearly to the extent he used to. That meant he was in a good mood. He would also brag about hanging out with Danny Phantom to Danny Fenton, and though Danny didn’t know if he bragged to others, he wasn’t sure which was worse – the bragging or the bullying.

It was all really off-putting, because Danny was beginning to really like the jock when he wasn’t around his friends and trying to impress others. When Dash though he was talking to Phantom, he was genuine and cool and funny, and it ruined it when he turned right back around and was an ass to Fenton.

Of course, Danny didn’t tell his friends this.

Sam and Tucker were supportive, but they turned on the drop of dime at the hint of bad news. The first time he had so much as just mentioned it, the words ‘unhealthy relationship’ were thrown around so much he almost forgot the meaning of them. He had to then lie and placate them before Sam marched into town and cut Dash’s balls off with scissors.

It wasn’t like that, he told himself. They just didn’t understand. Right?

Once he had convinced himself enough, he had then coached himself on how to avoid the topic. The only way to make sure Dash didn’t connect the dots, and the only way so that Danny didn’t ruin everything, was if Dash’s habit of bullying was never brought up.

That way, Danny could pretend that Phantom and Fenton were two different people.

■●■●■●■

_(July 26, 2005)_

“Whatcha doing?” Danny floated over Dash, eyeing the notebook in his lap with interest. He and Dash hadn’t agreed to meet today, but Danny had just finished chucking some zombie-like squirrels back in the Ghost Zone, and he was happy to spot Dash.

To his surprise, the jock jumped and turned a deep shade of red. He immediately covered the notebook. “For fucks sake, Phantom, you scared me!”

Danny snorted. “I’m a ghost. It’s in the job description.”

Dash didn’t look like he appreciated that. Still covering the notebook, he tried to hide it in his jacket, though the effort was futile. Danny had seen it. Laughing, Danny easily phased the notebook out of Dash’s hands and held it up to get a good look. The jock yelled out in surprise and made a grab for it, only for Danny to float out of reach. “Hey, that’s personal! Give it back!”

But Danny wasn’t listening, because he was staring at the paper in front of him. It was a sketched picture of him; or at the very least, an attempt at a sketch of him. It wasn’t very good.

Dash finally jumped and snatched the book back, scowling at the ghost boy. “What the fuck?”

“I – I’m sorry,” Danny stammered. “I wasn’t thinking.”

“Obviously,” Dash snapped.

He turned sharply and began to walk away, but Danny flew after him, blurting out apologies. He hovered over the jock in the air, garnering weird looks from the people around them. “I’m so sorry, Dash, I was just playing around. I didn’t know it was so important to you.”

“You’re basically haunting me,” Dash muttered. “Why are you haunting me?”

Danny blinked. “I … uh … um, well, I liked the picture?”

Dash pursed his lips. “You did?”

It had been a white lie, but Danny didn’t tell him that. He was kind of honoured, in a weird and creepy sort of way. Coming up blank with compliments, he shrugged. “I didn’t know you drew.”

“I don’t,” Dash said. “I just … well, I thought that I could try something new.”

“Oh.” So, that was what this was about.

Dash scowled. “That’s all you’re going to say? Oh? What, is it too girly for you?”

“I didn’t mean it like that!” Danny said. Dash had finally stopped walking away, and Danny floated to eye-level with him. “I’m actually happy you’re doing new things. You didn’t seem so happy with just football to back you up.”

“First of all,” Dash testified, “football is still the best thing ever. Second, I’ve decided drawing sucks. I hate it. It took me literally an hour to get this shit piece done.”

He shook the notebook in frustration, but Danny smiled at his antics.

“You don’t have to be good at something to like it.”

Dash cocked a brow. “That … doesn’t make any sense.”

Danny shrugged. “Your loss, then.” He hooked an arm around Dash, turning them around to go back to the bench Dash had previously sat at. “You can use me for a reference model, if you’d like. If you decide to quit, can I at least have the picture?”

“You would want this piece of shit?” Dash looked down at his drawing.

“Oh, you should know by now that I absolutely love shit.”

Dash reached over and roughed him up, faking being offended. The two boys laughed as they continued down the path. “Hey, don’t call my art shit!”

■●■●■●■

The afternoon following the art incident, Danny finally worked up the nerve to ask Dash out on a real date – one where they could go out in public and do normal things. They were still in the park, and Dash was mulling over the fact that Danny thought he should continue drawing for fun, when he asked under the pretense of trying to make it up to him. And the jock had blushed red and stammered and accepted. But Danny was in no position to judge, because he was flickering invisible as he was asking. And he had waved off Dash’s worry about going out in public, telling him that he had the problem solved.

In truth, Sam had the problem solved. Unfortunately, it was in the least conventional way. Danny really wished he knew the plan before he agreed.

Standing in front of his mirror, he felt kind of ridiculous.

Sam had picked out his wardrobe for tonight, so over top of his usual hazmat suit he wore dark jeans and a heavy jacket. While Sam loved the colours at heart, they also served the purpose of trying to drown-out his glow. They were made of thick material, too. He ditched his white gloves and boots in favour of more black attire, with boots that rose high and laced together. His hands were bare, but even as a ghost he retained his tan complexion, so the faint light didn’t worry him too much. To top off the weird gothic look, he was also forced into a beanie to hide his blinding white hair. Danny absolutely hated it.

He still didn’t look quite human – and the irony still made him laugh – but he had switched things up enough so that others wouldn’t recognize him immediately. After all, if people didn’t recognize Phantom as Fenton for a whole year and all he had was a colour palette change, then a simple wardrobe change would completely throw people off.

So, there he was, having flown to Dash’s house.

What he didn’t expect was for Dash’s father to open the door.

The man was looked nothing like Dash. The only thing they seemed to share was the height. Otherwise, it was like when Danny went ghost – the colours were inverted. His father had dark brown hair and dark eyes, with a skin darker than Dash’s pale white. He was just as looming and bulky, but he wasn’t lean like Dash was; this man seemed big and intimidating, the way Danny used to view Dash.

“Who’re you?” He demanded. “I don’t want to buy anything.”

Danny briefly remembered Dash calling his father an asshole.

“Danny, sir,” he said. He couldn’t come out and say Phantom, because then his disguise would have been for nothing. Not many people were called Phantom. He could only hope that Dash’s father didn’t make the connection with his first name and Danny Fenton. “Dash and I were going to hang out this afternoon.”

The man regarded him critically, eyeing his dark attire and strange eyes. “I don’t recognize you, and Dash didn’t say nothing about his friends coming over.”

He really should have just flown to Dash’s window and knocked there.

He had been stupid.

“Uh, well, can I come in?”

Wow, weren’t his manners in tip-top shape?

“Dad, who is – what? – oh, Phan – I mean – uh, hey, dude!” Dash appeared behind his father from up the stairs, looking nervous. He laughed awkwardly. “Let’s head to my room.”

Danny felt the man’s stare on his back all the way up the stairs.

As soon as they were in Dash’s room, Dash turned to Danny with raised brows, impressed. He grinned at Danny. “Wow, I didn’t even recognize you at first. You’re completely gothed-out. Only knew it was you when I saw your eyes.”

Danny laughed. “Well, that was the plan.”

“What’s the rest of the plan?” Dash asked. He went over to his closet and began digging around for a jacket, slipping his wallet and phone in his jeans. “What’re we doing tonight?”

It was only then that Danny’s stomach butterflies came back. “Well, the usual, I guess.”

“We … have a usual?”

Danny’s face heated up. “I meant, like, for a date.”

“A usual date.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I’m kind of nervous to be going out with a ghost, so you mind describing your idea of usual?”

Danny found himself laughing again. “Oh, god, do you think I’m going to take you to a graveyard, or something?” Dash looked weirded out at his response, as if that train of thought had only been logical, which made Danny laugh harder. “Fuck, no. I wanted to go out for dinner and finish with star-gazing, but if you dig haunting the dead, I’m all for it.”

■●■●■●■

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!”

Danny had long ago ditched his extra clothes – which were too singed and torn anyway – and now bore just his hazmat suit, gloves, and boots. He dodged Skulker’s net and phased through a wall to escape, grabbing for the Fenton Thermos. He could usually suck Skulker into the thermos just fine but depending on whether he’s had any upgrades to his battle suit, he might need to get him out of the metal figure first. And he doesn’t want to find out the latter at the last moment.

He peeked over the wall and didn’t see the hunter, so he flew into the sky to try and lure him out. “Hey, Skulker!” He shouted. “Come get your pelt!”

“The prey is sacrificing itself?”

The hulking metal ghost rose from another building, meeting Danny in altitude.

“Not quite.”

Danny shot an ectoblast at the ghost, which knocked him back, and he landed in front of Skulker, scowling and pointing the Fenton Thermos straight at him. He froze Skulker’s suit with a thick layer of his ghost ice, rendering it immobile, and he kicked the helmet open to reveal Skulker’s true form. The tiny green ghost jumped out and attempted to escape. Danny shot another ectoblast. “Next time bug off when I tell you to. You’ll be spending a while in the thermos before I let you go.”

He pressed the side button and sucked Skulker in, still scowling when he turned around to face the many people who were now staring openly. He groaned and burned the suit, then turned invisible so he could fly away in peace.

He met up with Dash in the back parking lot of the restaurant they were having their date at.

“I’m sorry about that,” Danny said, feeling like a broken record. This was the fourth interruption of the night, the previous three all being the Box Ghost. Danny was feeling tired of fighting ghosts, so despite his moral compass wilting, he wasn’t going to take the time to fly back home to release Skulker in the Ghost Zone like he did with the Box Ghost three times before.

For some reason, the ghosts on vacation had seemingly all gotten up individually and decided that tonight was the night to haunt the human world. There were other ghosts – harmless animals, mostly – that Danny didn’t bother with simply because they weren’t doing any real damage.

“No, it’s fine,” Dash said. He had also been saying that a lot. “Kind of your job.”

Danny groaned and hooked the thermos back at his side. “No, this is possibly the worst date ever. It’s my fault. I never have any luck with these things. I should have expected it.”

“You’ve dated before?” Dash asked, looking surprised.

Danny gave him a look. “Uh, of course.”

“Other humans?”

“Oh, uh …” So, that was what Dash was getting at.

He lied.

“No, I suppose not. You’re special, don’t worry.”

Dash grinned and reached over to catch Danny in a tight side hug, faking offense. “Hey, I’m special all on my own – don’t need a ghost boy to help!”

Danny phased through Dash’s arms, ignoring the protests of how he was being unfair, and flew above Dash to stay out of reach. “Well, now that dinner is ruined, you want to go ruin our sleep schedule, too?” He reached out a hand Aladdin-style. “Come on, we can go stargazing again, or watch a cheesy horror movie. I can fly us wherever.”

“Fly?” Dash’s voice cracked a little. “Uh, is that safe?”

“Safe?” Danny snorted. “You’re asking that to a dead guy?”

■●■●■●■

Dash screamed. “Put me down! Oh, fuck. Oh, shit. Fuck – god, holy shit – you’re going to drop me, I swear to god, you’re going to drop me –”

Danny laughed as he did another loop in the air, feeling his core trill in happiness at the freedom. He kept his arms around Dash, though it wasn’t really necessary – Dash was gripping onto him with such force that had Danny needed to breathe, they would be in serious trouble. He decided to stop messing with the jock and zoomed towards the park where they would finish the night with some stargazing. He figured that, of all things, this was something that he couldn’t mess up.

They touched down under their oak tree, where they would usually meet, and Dash pushed away from Danny and stumbled. “Fuck you, man. I thought I was going to die.”

“Ah, come on, it’s not that bad,” Danny teased.

Dash gave him a look of incredulity.

Where his Lichtenburg scars started on his left hand, he made a fist and shook it, reminded of his half-death. Danny gave an awkward laugh. “Yeah, never mind, it was pretty bad. It’s not something to joke about. My bad.”

“God, you’re so weird,” Dash said.

“I’m a ghost,” Danny defended. “I’m the least weird thing you’ll see in Amity Park.”

“Sure,” Dash drawled.

“But I’m also a ghost who knows a shit-ton about astronomy, so come on – it’s the perfect time to view the stars!” Danny grabbed Dash’s arm and dragged him to a spot with a wide-open view of the sky, the stars bright. Dash, unable to resist against his ghost strength, was mercilessly forced to the ground, Danny never letting go of him the whole time. His green eyes were big as he pointed upwards, childlike awe painted on his face as he pointed out constellations he knew by heart. He couldn’t help it; he rarely got to talk about his most favourite subject in the entire world. His friends and family were more interested in ghosts or had known him long enough to grow bored of the topic.

But Dash – he didn’t care. He sat back and listened and even had some funny commentary to add. The two boys sat there for hours, talking about the sky and the stories that came with the constellations, often punctuated by Dash complaining about how stupid they were.

“Oh – I think I finally see it – the Corona Borealis!” Danny pointed up at several different stars that created a rounded line, like a bowl.

Dash rolled his eyes. “Let me guess – it’s a sacred bowl that the Greeks used to drink from for immortality?”

Danny scrunched up his nose. “Not even close, but that story has legs. The Corona Borealis is a really old constellation and has several stories from all different cultures. I’m more familiar with the Greek stories, though. It’s also called The Northern Crown, and as the Greek story goes, it was supposedly created by the supreme goldsmith of the gods, Hephaestus. It was gifted by Theseus to Ariadne for their wedding. It’s a relatively easy constellation to recognize, but its stars aren’t very bright, so sometimes you can’t see it that well, or at all.”

“Who’s Theseus? Ariadne? Those sound completely made-up,” Dash said.

Danny floated a little higher, arm still wrapped around Dash’s, and smiled. “Well, I know more about the science part of astronomy, but I also like to indulge in the stories. As far as I remember, Theseus was some Greek dude who was sacrificed to a mean king who threw a bunch of people into a maze that was terrorized by a monster called the Minotaur – half bull and half human. But the king’s daughter fell in love with him … I think. And the maze was supposed to be impossible to navigate because it was magic, but Ariadne was smart and talked to the creator of the maze. And he gave her a ball of twine to roll as she ventured into the maze, so that she could find her way back. Ariadne used it to help Theseus escape the maze and kill the Minotaur, and they lived happily ever after.”

“That …” Dash blinked blearily up at the stars. He looked overwhelmed. “That sounds weird. Like, what’s the moral of the story? Why did the king want sacrifices? Why did no one think of the string before? Why was there a half bull half human?”

“Well …” Danny blushed. “I forget a lot of the story, but the king’s wife – the queen – was cursed by a god and fell in love with a prize bull or something –”

“Ew! That’s fucked up!”

Danny laughed. “I could be wrong.”

“God, I hope so!”

“But really, that’s how all the stories are,” Danny said. “Greek myths are crazy. I think all the writers were jacked up on cocaine, or something.”

“Or something,” Dash muttered.

A silence fell between the two. Danny started to let go of Dash and was just about to wrap up the night and say his goodbyes, when Dash suddenly reached over to grab his arm, sitting up in the grass. He pointed up at the sky. “Um … what … what about that one?”

Danny squinted, but try as he might, he wasn’t sure that Dash was actually pointing at a real constellation. His eyes traced the stars before he recognized one that he was familiar with. “You mean the little one right there? The line with the end thing?” Dash wasn’t even looking in the right direction, but he nodded anyway. Danny smiled. “It’s one of two figures that make up the constellation Serpens. It also has a Greek backstory, but it’s … kind of ironic for me.”

His smile slipped as he felt a chill settle in his bones.

His core created static in unease. The particular Greek myth attached to that constellation hit a little too close to home, even if it was vague. The memories it brought were less than pleasant.

He had died little over a year ago but wasn’t fully dead.

He had always been more sensitive than other ghosts about the ‘topic,’ mostly because they had died and switched to their purpose to continue – their obsession. They could accept it because it was over, and they had a new purpose and a new life. But Danny was stuck in the middle. He had died. But he also didn’t die. He was constantly reminded of his conflicted state of being. He never told his friends because, to them, he was still ‘alive.’ They didn’t understand what it meant to be a halfa. They saw the cool powers and the ghosts, and it became a little too easy to forget that a ghost was _dead_. And sometimes, he forgot, too. But a ghost didn’t have a working heart and pumping blood; a ghost had a core and an obsession, and they were pulsing with the life and breath of the Ghost Zone. They were full of ectoplasm.

He made jokes about death all the time.

Danny wondered sometimes if he actually thought they were funny.

Sometimes the topic was a trigger. Sometimes it wasn’t. Danny never knew when he was going to break down and have an existential crisis.

Dash gave him a weird look. “How can a constellation be ironic? I’ve got to hear this story.”

Danny felt pressure building up behind his eyes, and he knew that they would be flashing green. He ducked his head to hide it, because he knew Dash – a human – wouldn’t understand. Humans were one of the most compassionate creatures on earth, but they could never grasp what a ghost felt when remembering their death.

Of all the nights, it was tonight that he was going to have an episode. On a date night. With fucking Dash Baxter. This was probably the worst date Dash had ever been on. He was probably thinking about how weird it was to date a ghost, and how freaky Danny was, and how much he never wanted to see him again. Danny wanted to moan. He had fucked up, like always. He wanted to turn intangible and let the ground swallow him, but he didn’t, for Dash’s sake. He kept repeating ‘ _Dash doesn’t know_ ’ inside his head, as if that could quell his shaking core.

But Dash didn’t pester Danny.

He took one look at him and suddenly looked concerned.

Danny must have looked worse than he felt.

“I mean, you don’t have to talk about it,” he said awkwardly. Dash slowly let go of Danny’s arm, and Danny felt his core and heart sink in sync. “I was just curious. I’m sorry.”

Danny swallowed back his unease. ‘ _Dash doesn’t know_ ’ he kept telling himself – and yet here he was, still making an effort to try and understand a ghost. It was more than his parents had ever done in their decade long study on ghosts. Human or not, past bully and tormentor, such a response made Danny feel a little bit safer.

He licked his lips and floated lower to be level with Dash, realizing that he had subconsciously started to phase into the black sky. He rubbed his arms to try and generate warmth, even though that wasn’t really possible. Ice core ghosts were always cold. They weren’t bothered by the cold, either. But they could never truly be warm. Never. And he didn’t know why, but he needed Dash to know that it was okay even though it didn’t feel like it. It wasn’t okay because he didn’t feel okay, but Dash wasn’t at fault.

He hid his face in his hands, confused and a feeling like a mess. His core was flickering. Things had gone downhill so fast. Who would have thought that it wasn’t the ghost attacks, or his nervous and awkward behaviour at the restaurant, or his jokes that were so bad they made Danny want to finish his death – it was his own fucking self that screwed the night up? It was his own breakdown.

He hated it.

Why did he ever think this was going to work?

“Its not your fault, Dash. You didn’t know. It’s not the same for every ghost, anyway. I usually don’t think about it, that’s all. I try to forget – because, you know, that’s the easiest way to cope, is denial – but when I do remember I don’t … I don’t feel so good.”

And then he promptly waited to be left the fuck alone.

He waited for Dash to realize that this was too personal for a first date. He waited for Dash to realize the weight of what he was talking about. He waited for Dash to realize that he was a fucking ghost, and that meant that he was fucking dead. Danny was still a freak as Phantom, just as much as Freaky Fenton the human.

But Dash didn’t move. For a moment, everything was silent, and not the good kind of silent. Dash looked really uncomfortable. Then he bit his bottom lip. “Well, you don’t have to feel good.”

Danny was not expecting that.

He really wanted to feel good.

He didn’t understand.

Dash elaborated. “I mean, you don’t have to be okay. Though, I guess I don’t have much room to talk. It took me a really long time to realize that. I, uh … I had to go to therapy. And my therapist told me that it’s okay to feel sad. You can be upset. You have a reason to be, and you don’t have to feel bad about not being okay all the time.” 

Danny wiped at his eyes. He did _not_ want this to turn into a therapy session. He was supposed to be Phantom right now, not Fenton. He was supposed to be the larger-than-life hero of Amity Park. He was supposed to be strong and witty and playful. He wasn’t supposed to cry about death to teenagers who couldn’t even begin to grasp the concept. Dash wasn’t supposed to have to help Phantom. This was really embarrassing and was probably ruining his night.

“And … I imagine, fighting ghosts all the time, and being hunted … I mean, I couldn’t imagine it, actually. It’s terrifying to me – and yet, you do it everyday. You probably don’t get free therapy sessions. Can ghosts even see a therapist? So, you have plenty reason to not be okay.”

Danny laughed.

That was funny, really.

He did it everyday because he had to. That was his purpose. It was going to be his purpose long after he fully died, and long after his friends and family passed, and long after Amity Park crumbled to the ground in face of a new future. He was meant to protect. It wasn’t as heroic as Dash was making it sound. It gave him no excuses, because he was still more than just Phantom.

Outside of his core, and his obsession, and his purpose, he was still Fenton. He still had a physical life, he still had friends, and school, and responsibilities. He was stuck between two worlds.

He startled when Dash grabbed his hand.

He tried to pull away. “Dash, really, I’m sorry about all this heavy bullshit –”

“It’s not bullshit.” Dash looked angry, now. “I’m trying to be supportive and help you, because I’ve had to listen to my therapist drone on and on to me about getting better, and I hated every second of it. I had and still have anger issues, and I thought I didn’t have to get anything fixed. I was fine. But I wasn’t, and I’m still not. And if I’m going to be the only one you’ve ever spoken to about this – I’d be an asshole to wave it off. So, let me help, jerk.”

He could have phased his hand out of Dash’s grip. He could have shot off into the sky, or turned invisible, or completely scorched Dash with an ectoblast for how blunt he was being. He was kind of hurt the way Dash phrased it. Despite the fact that past him would have taken any blackmail he could, the fact that Dash went to therapy was one of the least important things he had learned. Right now, it was two boys talking about their problems, and Dash was willing to be real with him. He didn’t want to turn it away, because it was the first time that he had gotten a response. He could never talk about this with anyone else because he didn’t want their pity, he didn’t want to be referred to any therapist, and he didn’t want to be viewed as dumb and broken.

But Dash was the same way, so maybe he could help him.

He barely supressed a whine from his core as he fell forward and cried into Dash’s chest.

■●■●■●■

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry about getting all angsty at the end! Totally meant for a different outcome, (the title was going to be 'Summer Fling,' so make of that what you will), but then I started to listen to depressing music, and I just ... I couldn't help myself. Poor little boys both have problems, and maybe they can bond over them.

**Author's Note:**

> I remember getting into the Danny Phantom fandom a few years ago, and felt a lot of nostalgia despite not explicitly watching it when I was a kid. I loved the show and binged, but ultimately didn't explore the fandom. Now, it's come back to bite me in the ass. I hope you enjoy this - I haven't watched the show in a while, and might have to re-watch, to get characters right.


End file.
